Yesterday the Government announced it will spend $54 million to prevent and reduce homelessness.
They've also reminded us that they're spending nearly $200 million dollars on Housing First programmes.
No-one would deny this is a problem. I've been involved personally in trying to get a homeless person into housing and it's complex and it's hard and we failed. In the case I know about a house was found but the terrible irony was we couldn't find the homeless guy. He'd gone bush. Some people don't like life on the street but don't like life in a box even more. When we found him he said thanks but no thanks.
But there's many more people on the knife edge of homelessness and how can you be a functioning part of society without a roof and there are so many of us one setback away from the situation.
But what did we get? The Sustaining Tenancies Programme will be extended, offering a fence at the top of the cliff, according to Kris Faafoi.
He told us that the programme helps people with complex needs, such as mental health problems, addictions, criminal history, or family violence. They've been trialling it in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
At the moment, 550 public housing tenants have been helped by the programme and with the extra money he reckons 1500 people would be now be able to benefit from the programme.
So over the next four years, $31m will be spent on 67 intensive case managers and navigators to work with high-needs people.
This is when I picked up the calculator and divided 31 mill by 67 by 4 and discovered that means 115 grand each a year on average for the case managers.
I know this is a cheap shot but that's 67 bureaucrats that will not be homeless any time soon. At that is the bulk of the spending. Enough said, I thought.
A further $16m will be used for increased social services. Again that's for people that have roofs over their head and comfort those who do not. So now we're up to $47 million.
Meaning that there's $7 million left for those who actually need a house. That's nothing.
I say all this while reminding you that taxpayers have already forked out $23 million on emergency motel accommodation in the first three months of this year. That's a $100 million problem right there.
This policy announcement has the feeling of a token gesture. I won't quibble the extra bureaucrats but with the extra office staff they may also need some extra resource.
This homelessness policy seems to be a bit of virtue signalling politics and at the end of the day just a spit in the ocean.